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Poster: skybandit Date: Jun 26, 2010 4:16pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Copyrighted?

Hate to be a downer, but...
http://www.archive.org/details/AnthonyLanzasTheIncredible2-headedTransplant1971
contains a valid notice in the very last line of the credits, and...
http://www.archive.org/details/BattleOfTheWorlds1961
was renewed:

Type of Work: Motion Picture
Registration Number / Date: PAu001073719 / 1987-11-25
Title: Battle of the worlds / an Ultra Film production ; directed by Anthony Dawson.
Description: 2 videocassettes : sd., col. ; 3/4 in.
Language: Dubbed into English.
Copyright Claimant: U P A Productions of America
Date of Creation: 1987
Authorship on Application: U P A Productions of America, employer for hire.
Previous Registration: Preexisting material: motion picture.
Basis of Claim: New Matter: "new narration, editing, and some new cinematography."

Names: Dawson, Anthony
Ultra Film
UPA Productions of America

...and it's probably up for GATT in it's original form.

Would LOVE to be proven wrong here...

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Poster: skybandit Date: Jun 27, 2010 10:47am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Copyrighted?

Video-Cellar actually quoted the same info I did in a previous post. If you got your copy from a commercial source instead of some UHF station's trash-pile, it's almost certainly the modified version. I image the "new material" is a title sequence that would fit in a panned-&-scanned format. I'm an amateur just like you, and I hope I'm wrong, 'cuz "Battle" is quite the cheez-fest! But... Neither of the examples you listed are a reliable sources for such information. I've seen copyrighted material on Film Chest (mostly stuff that's been GATTed, which is hard to check here in the USA) and I've heard that Desert Island is just some guy that records off the cable and often as not leaves the station's watermarks on the product. Even Alpha has a tiny fraction of material that is copyrighted, or at least questionable. I DO know I downloaded MY copy of "Battle" from the archives years ago, and it has since been removed. Hope this doesn't discourage you from uploading more old sci-fi, like the Flash Gordon show! We all appreciate your effort to add to the collection! PS: I keep a copy of Video-Cellar's postings, and I'm afraid he says "The Giants of Thessaly" has been GATTed too. Sorry.
This post was modified by skybandit on 2010-06-27 17:27:42
This post was modified by skybandit on 2010-06-27 17:45:18
This post was modified by skybandit on 2010-06-27 17:47:50

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Poster: HektorT Date: Jun 28, 2010 4:42am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Copyrighted?

All the sources I've seen from Desert Islands Films were of reasonable to excellent quality and they claim to use Beta masters. They also offer some HD videos.

Video Cellar says that something is GATT'd if it was originally published outside of the USA and was not in the public domain in the country where it was originally published. That does not always make it GATT. While VideoCellar's input is quite valuable, I don't expect him to spend hours researching copyright status of international films for free. Also since GATT'd is a frequent topic around here, there are situations where a GATT'd film could legally be posted. For example if a reliance party did it for a film without a NIE it would be perfectly legal.

I think a lot of people would support the posting of GATT films that have no NIE, since that means no owner has come forward to recover the copyright

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Poster: Mystic550 Date: Jun 28, 2010 3:30pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Copyrighted?

Gatt is definitely confusing. They should have made it a requirement that I registration had to be filed. I found this at the U.S. Copyright office. They have PDF and Text files of NIE registrations. They state - Owners of a restored work were directed to notify reliance parties if the owner of the rights planned to enforce the rights. One means of notification was filing with the Copyright Office a Notice of Intent to Enforce (NIE) a Restored Copyright.
I checked the NIE registrations and neither film was there.
http://www.copyright.gov/gatt.html

Also I checked Alpha Video and they are selling both Battle and Thessaly. I'm going to try Google and see if I can find anymore info.

Reply [edit]

Poster: Mystic550 Date: Jun 27, 2010 6:51am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Copyrighted?

Hi, I posted "Battle of the Worlds". First let me say that I definitely want to adhere to copyright and renewals and if there is a problem I will delete the upload. I checked and these 2 wholesale public domain distributors are selling the video as public domain to other home video distributors.

http://www.filmchest.com/film-chest/search-public-domain-films/filmlibrary/science-fiction/Battle-of-the-Worlds-


http://www.desertislandfilms.com/cgi-bin/dif.pl?Category=Science%20Fiction/Horror&pagenum=2&cgifunction=Search

Maybe Video-Cellar or others who do a lot of copyright research can chime in. The copyright notice shown for Battle of the Worlds lists the Date of Creation as 1987 and

Previous Registration: Preexisting material: motion picture.
Basis of Claim: New Matter: "new narration, editing, and some new cinematography."

It looks like they made a new registration in 1987 because they added new material. When new material is added that version can be copyrighted but the original still remains public domain.

I searched the US copyright database and couldn't find any entries for an original registration or renewal. The U.S. theatrical release was March 1963 (dubbed) by Topaz Film Corp. This print shows Topaz Film Corp. at the start of the video and there is no copyright notice either in the opening or closing credits.

Video-Cellar,
Can you provide any input? Thanks